Airlines and postal services, still getting along well

The association between airlines and postal services dates back to the very early times of aviation. In fact, many pioneering airlines started to carry mail and, only later, started to carry passenger...Some air postal routes became icons of an era, such as the famous Aéropostale, running between Toulouse and Dakar, with stopovers in Barcelona and Casablanca....

Although airplanes have continued to feature prominently in air mail stamp issues in many countries, the two industries have followed diverging paths, though, as "paper" mail has gone into decline, the number of air passengers worldwide has only gone up.

Canadian air mail stamps

This is why I really liked these stamps that have been issued by the French postal service, La Poste, to celebrate the start of the new Volotea service between Venice and Bordeaux.

Volotea route inauguration stamp, Bordeaux (France)

As it happens, La Poste has a service that allows you to order customized stamps with images of your choice, Bordeaux airport has the tradition of ordering a set of stamps to celebrate each new route that starts at the airport.